Darkstalkers Resurrection Review

Darkstalkers Resurrection Review

Publisher: CapcomDeveloper: Iron Galaxy Studios

Fighting games are weird. Darkstalkers is about the extent of how weird they get. As a series it’s not known for the most technical of mechanics, but it has some of the strangest moves and for sure the most unique character designs. One of the fighters is part-woman-part-cat, another is little red riding hood only a tooled up hitman, there’s a guy that’s actually a bee, a living sarcophagus, a punk-zombie. These are the reasons you pay attention to Darkstalkers initially, but this new collection has so much more to offer.

This newest release is a remake-of-sorts that gives players an enhanced version of Darkstalkers 2 and 3. At any point the player can revert back to the start screen and switch between the two. The clearest differences between the pair are the roster, with 3 largely just expanding on the previous, but there’s a few changes to moves. Some purists prefer the experience of 2, this gives them the option.

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It’s a Capcom fighting game, which means the controls work in a similar style to the street fighter systems of quarter-circles and charging back, characters fall into projectile focused, rushdown and glass cannon based classes, and if you know what any of that means you’re probably already aware of what this game offers. For those that aren’t, the game’s approach to teaching new players does a decent enough job of explaining what a character is capable of doing. This is a new addition for this version of the game. In a mode selectable from the singleplayer portion of the menu you can enter a tutorial which gives you challenges. These challenges will ask you to perform attack combos that succinctly explain your choice of character’s capabilities and strengths.

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Adding to the tutorialisation is an achievement system that was also found in the re-release of Street Fighter Third Strike a little while ago. This manifests as a set of tasks that appear on the side of the screen that, when completed, give the player points that raise their level. These tasks range from throwing projectiles to winning matches and cancelling out of moves. It constantly affirms that whatever you’re doing, you’re getting continual praise and reward for trying it out while also explaining what you’ve done.

It’s a good teaching tool, but also it makes up for the game’s native resolution being nearly half the size of our screens now, so this new information fills up what would otherwise be vacant portions of your monitor.

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If you’re not particularly bothered about remaining true to the original look, there are optional changes to the graphics that can be accessed in the pause menu. You can turn on scan lines which make the visuals similar to what you’d get in an arcade, or pixel smoothing that removes some of the jaggedness of the character sprites. Most importantly, it gives you the option of a different viewing angle. You can choose to play the game as if you’re standing on the left side of an arcade cabinet if you want. This, too, was present in the re-release of Third Strike, but it’s still a silly option that offers some extra simple delight and it’s great it’s here too.

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Should you be unable to find a friend nearby to play with, the online multiplayer seems adept enough at getting you into a game quickly, plus the netcode is managed by GGPO which has become fighting game industry standard for a reason. It’s resulted in what amounts to a lag-free experience and removes any of the frustration usually found in online fighters.

Darkstalkers Resurrection is the premier way to play Darkstalkers 2 and 3 in 2013. If you like your fighting games weird, but fully functional, this is what you need.